Expedition White Shark App

January 18th, 2012

The app will allow you to receive live tracking data for the tagged Great White sharks, at the same time as the research scientists.

Positions for the tagged sharks can only be calculated when a shark is swimming at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water for several minutes, furthermore, one of the ARGOS satellites must be overhead at the very same instant.

Expedition White Shark App Features

-Real time tracking of tagged white sharks on world map

-Facts About the sharks Fun facts about sharks

-Videos showing tagging and tracking of white sharks

-Images and information on tagged white sharks

-Maps and information on shark attacks along the western coast of North America

-MarineCSI facebook feed with current shark conservation and research information

-Fun game that lets you experience the challenges a white shark faces as it grows up

Welcome to Expedition White Shark, the world’s very first app that allows anyone to track adult white sharks from a special satellite array orbiting the earth. To make this possible, scientists at the Marine Conservation Science Institute (MCSI) fitted Great White Sharks with custom built satellite transmitters. Short video clips presented within the app demonstrate the methods we devised for the safe capture, tagging and release of these large charismatic creatures, as well as presenting new insight into the life history and conservation of the species.

The app will allow you to receive live tracking data for the tagged Great White sharks, at the same time as the research scientists. Positions for the tagged sharks can only be calculated when a shark is swimming at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water for several minutes, furthermore, one of the ARGOS satellites must be overhead at the very same instant. Since the sharks are not always finning and the polar-orbiting satellites are not always within receiving distance of a tagged shark, we do not constant data from our tags. Instead we receive intermittent positions from our sharks but each signal received by the satellites and beamed to us from space adds to our growing knowledge of the life history of this species. The MCSI satellite tagging of Great White Sharks has led to many important new findings regarding white shark biology, and each day brings promise of a new discovery that you can make with us.

Explore the histories of individual Great White Sharks from Guadalupe Island, Mexico, by visiting the Meet Our Sharks portion of Expedition White Shark. You will find detailed historic tracking data and bios for each of the sharks we have tagged, including two individuals from the Farallon Islands off central California, USA. Our Expedition White Shark game is meant to impart interesting white shark life history facts to those who dare to meet the challenges faced by a baby white shark as it grows through the juvenile and sub-adult phase, eventually migrating to Guadalupe Island and the distant Shared Offshore Foraging Area (SOFA). Keep up with the latest research insights posted by Dr. Michael Domeier and Nicole Nasby-Lucas, by using your Facebook account to log into the News portion of the app .